Playing the football odds soars in popularity

Studying the football odds and having a bet with top online bookmakers like Bet365 has become part of the beautiful game for many punters. A bet gives an added thrill and tension to an already interesting match.

The link between football betting and the top online bookmakers is very close. Just watch any match on TV and see the massive sponsorship. It’s on the players’ shirts and on the billboard hoardings around the pitch. The bookies are pumping millions into top flight football because with the betting, they are getting so much turnover back out

Punting has never been easier or more extensive. The world’s most popular and most watched sport is also top of the list when it comes to wagering. Soccer betting has benefited more than gambling on any other sport from the development of the internet across the globe and the consequent growth of online bookmaking. As society in general (yes, even in times of global recession) becomes more cash rich and time poor, the speed and convenience of soccer or football betting online is a godsend for the potential punter looking to profit from football.

Having some money on football was never sentimentally attached to the experience of visiting the bookmakers shop on the high street and spending hours scanning the copies of newspapers pinned to the walls that was a tradition in the horse racing world.

Online bookmakers offer an immense number of punting possibilities. The sheer scale of soccer betting is awesome. A quick look at an online bookmaker reveals markets ranging from predicting the victor of the FA Cup to forecasting results in the lower leagues which feature such illustrious teams as Maidstone United and Tonbridge Angels.

If you are looking to profit from football further afield, you can bet live, in play on matches all over the world. When Shabab Al Ordon play Al Alhi Sanaa, for example, odds are on offer for much more than just the full time result. You can bet on the half time result, the next goal, the total number of goals, the total number of goals in the first half, the total number of corners, the number of corners in the first half and the number of 2-way corners. There were also fourteen Asian Handicap options as well as odds on offer for who would be the last team to score, on both teams scoring goals and Shabab Al Ordon finishing the match with a clean sheet.

Such is the appeal of soccer as sport, worldwide, that football odds now stretch far beyond the markets concerning what actually happens in a match. Certain bookmakers will provide markets to cover all aspects of footballing news. Markets may be offered on team changes, manager changes, transfers to other teams and the likelihood of prominent players returning from injury in time to play in a particular match. You may even be able to bet on the likely outcomes of scandals relating to football players and their wives. If people were as fervent about politics as they are as football the world would probably be a very different place.

So why is football and soccer betting so popular?

Balls and various other objects were kicked around in some form of sport across the globe long before ‘football’ was formally defined in 1862 in England. The Romans and Ancient Greeks used a form of football to help prepare warriors, physically and mentally, for battle. The rule book may have originally been written in Britain but football in various forms was already in existence long before it was produced.]

So how can you profit from betting on football odds?

There is certainly no shortage of information available to inform your decisions. You can easily find no end of football data and statistics online if you are prepared to trawl through it. You can also subscribe to a specialist football information provider if you feel that studying the statistics will give you an edge. For those looking for short cuts, the internet is full of tipsters claiming to have impressive track records on football betting. As always, there are offers of expensive subscriptions to ‘invaluable information’ which is likely to generate untold income in soccer betting. Caveat emptor.

There are also people describing themselves as ‘professional gamblers’ claiming to have developed football systems where you ‘simply cannot lose’. The sceptics among us might ask why, if their system actually worked as well as they suggest in their marketing blurb, are these individuals touting their so-called systems online rather than just getting rich profiting from their own football betting? ‘Infallible’ soccer betting systems are not the answer.

One factor that is often overlooked as an influence on the outcome of football is the weather. If you are betting on UK matches, it is worth checking the forecast local to your target matches. Yes, the weather will obviously be the same at both ends of the pitch but there are certain teams with key players, especially strikers, who deal with bad weather and the consequent pitch conditions better than others. And I don’t mean just the most obvious recent imports from sunnier climates who have probably never played in the rain prior to moving to Britain.

There is often an opportunity for the analytical punter to profit in football betting by exploiting the sometimes inappropriate odds that are generated by sentimental betting. Sentimental or patriotic betting can affect the markets in many sports. In UK tennis betting markets, Murray mania has sometimes resulted in slightly illogical odds being generated in response to the vast sums being wagered that represent British hope rather than expectation. The same principle can sometimes apply to football odds too.

Certain football teams tend to attract loyal fans that choose to believe their own realities. Academics have written reams about the sociological phenomenon of football and the psychology of football fans. Television celebrities have even written books about the agonies they have personally experienced caused by doggedly following a certain team that has been supported by their family for generations. It would be inconceivable for such an individual to bet on the opposition. Legions of loyal fans may help to skew a soccer betting market, providing opportunities for the non partisan punter to benefit from better value odds on the opposition.

It will be the matches that escape the attentions of professional punters that are likely to provide the most interesting markets so, if your football know how extends well beyond the Premier League into the lesser leagues, it might be worth starting to do your research and potentially making some money from betting on the football odds.